Vehicle with hyperlapse video and social networking

ABSTRACT

A vehicle is described that includes a video camera configured to record video, a processor configured to process the recorded video from the video camera into hyperlapse video, and an input/output device to link the hyperlapse video with a social network associated with at least one of a driver of the vehicle and the vehicle. The processor may be configured to receive video data from the video camera and to create the hyperlapse video by reconstructing a video stream from the video data, planning a smooth path through the video stream, and rendering the video data along the smooth path into the hyperlapse video that has a faster speed and less jitter than the video stream. The hyperlapse video may be a non-native, sped-up video of the recorded video from the video camera.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is generally directed to a motor vehicle withvideo processing methods and systems that can produce hyperlapse videoand share the video over various networks.

BACKGROUND

Vehicles can have cameras that produce video showing the travel of thevehicle. It may be desirable to have video of such travels and to sharethe video with others. However, vehicle video may not be suitable forviewing due to its length and vibrations or jitter.

SUMMARY

A vehicle is described that includes a video camera configured to recordvideo. The camera may be a vehicle mounted camera. A vehicle processoris configured to process the recorded video from the video camera intohyperlapse video. The vehicle includes an input/output device to linkthe hyperlapse video with a social network associated with at least oneof the driver of the vehicle and the vehicle. In an example, theinput/output device is a mobile phone. In an example, the input/outputdevice includes a network communication device in the vehicle.

In an example, the vehicle includes a processor configured toreconstruct a video stream from the video data, plan a smooth paththrough the video stream, and render the video data along the smoothpath into a hyperlapse video that has a faster speed and less jitterthan the video stream. The vehicle may also include an input/outputdevice configured to link the hyperlapse video with a social network.

In an example, the input/output device is a mobile phone.

In an example, the input/output device includes a network communicationdevice in the vehicle.

In an example, the hyperlapse video is not a native, sped-up video ofthe recorded video.

In an example, the video camera is further configured to record fromvehicle activation and to store the recorded video in a memory in thevehicle.

In an example, the processor is further configured to generate thehyperlapse video while the video camera records additional video data.

In an example, the processor is further configured initiate recording ofthe video data and generating of the hyperlapse video based on alocation of the vehicle.

In an example, the processor is further configured to send thehyperlapse video to an external processor that is configured to combinethe hyperlapse video with video from other sources.

In an example, the input/output device includes an application on amobile phone that connects to a computer in the vehicle and a computerof the social network.

A method for a vehicle, according to examples described herein, mayinclude recording video data using a vehicle camera and processing,using a vehicle processor, the video data into hyperlapse video. In anexample, the hyperlapse video is output to a social network associatedwith at least one of a driver of the vehicle and the vehicle.

In an example, the outputting includes outputting the video through aportable device in communication with both the vehicle and the socialnetwork.

In an example, the outputting includes outputting the video over anetwork communication device in the vehicle.

In an example, the processing includes reconstructing a video streamfrom the video data, planning a smooth path through the video stream,and rendering the video data along the smooth path into the hyperlapsevideo that has a faster speed and less jitter than original video.

In an example, the hyperlapse video is not a native, sped-up video ofthe recorded video from the vehicle camera.

In an example, the recording begins with vehicle activation.

In an example, the recording and processing are initiated based on alocation of the vehicle.

In an example, the recording includes receiving information from asource external to the vehicle that the vehicle is near an eventtrending in social media.

A further method for sharing vehicle video data may include, by acomputer, reconstructing video frames via statistical modeling of videodata, identifying a path through the reconstructed video frames thatminimizes data loss and smooths transitions between the reconstructedvideo frames, rendering hyperlapse video using the identified paththrough the video data, and outputting the hyperlapse video from thevehicle to a social network.

In an example, the rendering includes creating the hyperlapse video tonot be a native, sped-up video of the recorded video.

In an example, the recording is from vehicle activation and storing therecorded video in a memory in the vehicle before reconstructing,identifying and rendering.

In an example, the rendering is performed while a video camera recordsadditional video data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a vehicle according to an exampleembodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a communication including a vehicleaccording to an example embodiment;

FIG. 3 is view of a vehicle interface according to an exampleembodiment; and

FIG. 4 is flow chart showing a method according to an exampleembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosedherein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodimentsare merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in variousand alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; somefeatures may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particularcomponents. Therefore, specific structural and functional detailsdisclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as arepresentative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variouslyemploy the present invention.

It is popular today to share videos on social networking sites orthrough other electronic communication means. However, some videos aregenerally long and may not be enjoyed. This may be true for vehicletravel videos. While a shortened video may be produced by skippingframes (e.g., time-lapsing), the resulting video may contain movementsbetween frames that are very sudden and gives the impression that thecamera is constantly shaking. In some instances, people may not viewsuch poor quality shaking video at all. A vehicle may process that videodata using hyperlapse techniques to produce a shortened video that issmoother, which is more watchable to a viewer. A hyperlapse video isalso shortened in time and may be smoother, with less sudden movement,than the original real-time video or a traditional sped-up video. Insome example, the vehicle's hyperlapse video may have all the benefitsof time-lapsing without the violent transitions between frames. Thevehicle's hyperlapse video will have smoothed transitions, giving theimpression that the viewer is gliding through the scene of therecording, e.g., outside the vehicle.

In an example, the vehicle will have a processor that can apply ahyperlapse technique(s) to video from vehicle dash cameras, vehiclefront facing cameras and other vehicle cameras. As a result, the vehiclecan provide a new range of features relative to video and share recordedevents over the whole course of a complete drive or during a period ofinterest during the drive. By reducing the time length of the video andremoving the shake in the reduced time video, the video can be extendedto show not just what happened in one particular instance of the driveand can show an entire drive. The vehicle's video processor can processthe video to a hyperlapse video in the car. For long drives, the vehiclecould record a certain amount of video while having the processorprocess an earlier portion of the recording into the hyperlapsed video.This task parallelization of recording and processing would saveprocessing time and memory space.

The video may be geotagged is to add geographical metadata, such aslocation data or GPS, data to items such as pictures or video. This canbe used to sort through items to view or display video from a specificlocation, or group items that are relatively close to each other. Thevehicle may have built-in navigation system, e.g. a global positioningsystem (“GPS”). The video can be paired with other data to providelocation information in the video.

The user, e.g., a vehicle driver, can control how the video informationis shared by the vehicle. Raw video may be too large for sharing.Reduced time video, i.e., video that is merely sped up, may not havesufficient quality that viewers will want to watch the reduced timevideo. Using a hyperlapse technique to shorten a video into a smooth,time-shortened video clip enables the user to share these hyperlapsevideos on social networking sites. In an example, time-shortening avideo may mean showing the entire trip in distance but shortening thetime it takes for the video to play relative to same distance. Long,scenic road trips (e.g., a couple hours or more) can be condensed intominutes. The user can use the hyperlapse video to share directions to anevent, to share a point of interest, or share an event that has acurrent happening of interest.

In an example, the vehicle may have a video output device to send thehyperlapse video to a storage device off the vehicle or share thehyperlapse video on a social network site. The video output cancommunicate directly to the off-site storage via a network. The vehiclecan also link to a mobile phone, which can be in short rangecommunication with the vehicle. The mobile phone may share thehyperlapse video with the off-site storage or social network. In anexample, the user may wish to perform additional video editing using thehyperlapsed video before sharing. In that case, the user may have thevehicle store the hyperlapse video until the vehicle arrives at familiarcommunication network. A familiar communication network may be a networkfor which the vehicle has previously stored the login information. Oncein range, the vehicle would upload the video onto a shared-drive on acomputer of the user. This would allow the user to go the computer andfurther edit the hyperlapse video.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example block topology for a vehicle-basedcomputing system 1 (VCS) for a vehicle 30. An example of such avehicle-based computing system 1 is the SYNC system manufactured by THEFORD MOTOR COMPANY. A vehicle enabled with a vehicle-based computingsystem may contain a visual front end interface 4 located in the vehicle30. The user may also be able to interact with the interface if it isprovided, for example, with a touch sensitive screen. In anotherillustrative embodiment, the interaction occurs through, button presses,spoken dialog system with automatic speech recognition and speechsynthesis. The interface 4 may include an electronic control module thatuses hardware to execute controls to provide a display and interactionwith a user, e.g., the vehicle driver.

In the illustrative embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a processor 3 is fixedin the vehicle. The processor 3 may be central processing unit (CPU),processor, logic circuits or a combination of machine instructions andhardware, which may control at least some portion of the operation ofthe vehicle-based computing system. Provided within the vehicle 30, theprocessor 3 allows onboard processing of commands, controls androutines, e.g., processing video data from an on-board video camera 10.In an example, the processor 3 may reduce the length of the video whilereducing the jitter in the video from the vehicle. Further, theprocessor 3 is connected to both non-persistent storage 5 and persistentstorage 7. In this illustrative embodiment, the non-persistent storage 5is random access memory (RAM) and the persistent storage 7 is a harddisk drive (HDD) or flash memory. In general, persistent(non-transitory) storage 7 can include all forms of memory that maintaindata when a computer or other device is powered down. These include, butare not limited to, solid state hard drives, HDDs, read/write compactdisks (CDs), read/write digital versatile disks (DVDs), magnetic tapes,solid state drives, portable universal serial bus (USB) drives and anyother suitable form of persistent storage 7. Other forms of persistentmemory include flash memory (NAND Flash and NOR Flash) and embeddedMultiMediaCard (eMMC). In an example, the storage 7 has a storage size,e.g., one gigabyte, or multiple gigabytes, that is less than twice thetotal size of the controls being stored therein. The storage 7 can storeboth raw video data from the camera 10 and processed video (e.g.,reduced length video, time-lapse video, hyperlapse video and the like)from the processor 3.

The processor 3 is also provided with a number of different inputsallowing the user to interface with the processor 3. In thisillustrative embodiment, a microphone 29, an auxiliary input 25 (forinput 33), a USB input 23, a global positioning system (GPS) input 24,the screen 4, which may be a touchscreen display, and a BLUETOOTH input15 are all provided. Each of these inputs may include an electroniccontrol module that executes controls for the various electronics of theinputs to operate. An input selector 51 is also provided, to allow auser to swap between various inputs. Input to both the microphone andthe auxiliary connector is converted from analog to digital by aconverter 27 before being passed to the processor 3. Although not shown,numerous vehicle components and auxiliary components in communicationwith the VCS 1 may use a vehicle network (such as, but not limited to, acontroller area network (CAN) bus) to pass data to and from the VCS 1(or components thereof). Such vehicle components can be controlled bythe processor 3, other electronic circuitry, or electronic controlmodules that execute controls, which can be in the form of hardware orhardware executing the controls for a specific vehicle component. Whiledescribed embodiments relate to vehicle controls, other controlsembedded in other systems and devices may also use the memory schemesdescribed herein to allow for efficient updating of control instructionsfor multiple modules in such a system. Other modules can include enginecontrol modules, operational control modules, safety modules, and thelike. In operation, the user (e.g., the driver of the vehicle) may speaka command (e.g., a “record” command) that is sensed by the microphone.The location system (e.g., GPS system) can provide location informationthat can be stored with the video in the storage 7 and processed withthe video data by the processor 3.

Outputs from the VCS system 1 can include, but are not limited to, avisual display 4 and a speaker 13 or stereo system output. The speaker13 is connected to an amplifier 11 and receives its signal from theprocessor 3 through a digital-to-analog converter 9. Output can also bemade to a remote BLUETOOTH device such as personal navigation device(PND) 54 or a USB device such as vehicle navigation device 60 along thebi-directional data streams shown at 19 and 21 respectively. Each ofthese outputs may include an electronic control module that executescontrols for the various electronics of the inputs to operate. In someexamples, the VCS system executes controls, e.g., through electroniccircuitry or electronic control modules that execute controls. Thevisual display 4 and the speaker 13 can operate to display the processedvideo, e.g., a hyperlapse video, in the vehicle.

In one illustrative embodiment, the system 1 uses the BLUETOOTHtransceiver 15 to establish a communication link 17 with a portabledevice 53 (e.g., cell phone, smart phone, PDA, or any other devicehaving wireless remote network connectivity). The portable device 53 canthen be used to establish a communication link 59 with a network 61outside the vehicle 30 through, for example, communication 55 with acellular tower 57. In some embodiments, tower 57 may be a Wi-Fi accesspoint. Exemplary communication between the portable device 53 and theBLUETOOTH transceiver is represented by communication link 14. In anexample, the portable device 53 can link the vehicle, e.g., anyhyperlapse video, to a remote storage or a social network 70.

Pairing a portable device 53 and the BLUETOOTH transceiver 15 can beinstructed through a button 52 or similar input. Accordingly, theprocessor is instructed that the onboard BLUETOOTH transceiver 15 willbe paired with a BLUETOOTH transceiver in a portable device 53.

Data may be communicated between processor 3 and network 61 utilizing,for example, a data-plan, data over voice, or dual-tone multiplefrequency (DTMF) tones associated with portable device 53.Alternatively, it may be desirable to include an onboard modem 63 havingantenna 18 to communicate 16 data between processor 3 and network 61over the voice band. The portable device 53 can then be used tocommunicate 59 with a network 61 outside the vehicle 30 through, forexample, communication 55 with a cellular tower 57. In some embodiments,the modem 63 may establish communication 20 with the tower 57 forcommunicating with network 61. As a non-limiting example, modem 63 maybe a USB cellular modem 63 and communication 20 may be cellularcommunication. The processed video on the vehicle can be sent from thevehicle using the portable device 53 and, in some embodiments, thenetwork 61, to a remote storage or social network 70.

In one illustrative embodiment, the processor 3 is provided with anoperating system (e.g., instructions being executed in a machine)including an API to communicate with modem application software. Themodem application software may access an embedded module or firmware onthe BLUETOOTH transceiver to complete wireless communication with aremote BLUETOOTH transceiver (such as that found in a portable device).Bluetooth is a subset of the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802 personal area network (PAN) protocols. IEEE 802local area network (LAN) protocols include wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) andhave considerable cross-functionality with IEEE 802 PAN. Both aresuitable for wireless communication within a vehicle 30. Anothercommunication strategy that can be used in this realm is free-spaceoptical communication (such as infrared data association (IrDA)) andnon-standardized consumer infrared (IR) protocols.

A camera 50 is mounted in the vehicle 30 and may communicate with eitherthe processor 3 or the memory 7. The camera 50 may further include itsown internal memory and processors to take video or still pictures forstorage. The camera 50 may be fixed to the front of the vehicle, e.g.,in the front grille or in the bumper. In an example, the camera 50 ismounted on the dashboard inside the vehicle interior. The camera 50 canfurther include multiple imagers that can be linked together to form acamera system. The camera can further be mounted on the sides of thevehicle or in the side mirrors. In an example, the camera 50 is acharge-coupled device capable of high definition imaging, e.g., 1080i,1080p or 720p formats. The camera 50 may record video of the environmentthrough which the vehicle is traveling. The processor 3 can control thecamera to start and stop recording based on stored settings in thevehicle computing system 1. The driver of the vehicle 30 may launchrecording using the camera 50 via buttons as inputs or via voicecommands sensed through microphone 29.

In another embodiment, portable device 53 includes a modem for voiceband or broadband data communication. In the data-or-voice embodiment, atechnique known as frequency division multiplexing may be implementedwhere the owner of the portable device 53 can talk over the device whiledata is being transferred. At other times, when the owner is not usingthe device, the data transfer can use the whole bandwidth (300 Hz to 3.4kHz in one example). While frequency division multiplexing may be commonfor analog cellular communication between the vehicle 30 and theInternet, and is still used, it has been largely replaced by hybrids ofCode Domain Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Domain Multiple Access (TDMA),and Space-Domain Multiple Access (SDMA) for digital cellularcommunication. These are all ITU IMT-2000 (3G) compliant standards andoffer data rates up to 2 Mbs for stationary or walking users and 385 kbsfor users in a moving vehicle 30. 3G standards are now being replaced byIMT-Advanced (4G) which offers 200 Mbs for users in a vehicle 30 and 1Gbs for stationary users. If the user has a data-plan associated withthe portable device 53, it is possible that the data-plan allows forbroad-band transmission and the system could use a much wider bandwidth(speeding up data transfer). In still another embodiment, portabledevice 53 is replaced with a cellular communication device (not shown)that is installed to vehicle 30. In yet another embodiment, the portabledevice 53 may be a wireless LAN device capable of communication over,for example (and without limitation), an 802.11g network (i.e., Wi-Fi)or a WiMax network.

In one embodiment, incoming data can be passed through the portabledevice 53 via a data-over-voice or data-plan, through the onboardBLUETOOTH transceiver and into the processor 3 of the vehicle 30. In thecase of certain temporary data, for example, the data can be stored onthe HDD or other storage media 7 until such time as the data is nolonger needed.

Additional sources that may interface with the vehicle 30 include a PND54, having, for example, a USB connection 56 and/or an antenna 58, avehicle navigation device 60 having a USB 62 or other connection, anonboard GPS device 24, or remote navigation system (not shown) havingconnectivity to network 61. USB is one of a class of serial networkingprotocols. IEEE 1394 (FireWire™ (Apple), i.LINK™ (Sony), and Lynx™(Texas Instruments)), EIA (Electronics Industry Association) serialprotocols, IEEE 1284 (Centronics Port), S/PDIF (Sony/Philips DigitalInterconnect Format) and USB-IF (USB Implementers Forum) form thebackbone of the device-device serial standards. Most of the protocolscan be implemented for either electrical or optical communication.

Further, the processor 3 could be in communication with a variety ofother auxiliary devices 65. These devices 65 can be connected through awireless connection 67 or a wired connection 69. Auxiliary device 65 mayinclude, but are not limited to, personal media players, wireless healthdevices, portable computers, portable storage devices and the like.

Also, or alternatively, the processor 3 could be connected to avehicle-based wireless router adapter 73, using for example a Wi-Fi(IEEE 802.11) transceiver 71. This could allow the processor 3 toconnect to remote networks within range of the local router 73.

In addition to having exemplary processes executed by a vehiclecomputing system located in a vehicle 30, in certain embodiments, theexemplary processes may be executed at least in part by one or morecomputing systems external to and in communication with a vehiclecomputing system. Such a system may include, but is not limited to, awireless device (e.g., and without limitation, a mobile phone) or aremote computing system (e.g., and without limitation, a server)connected through the wireless device. Collectively, such systems may bereferred to as vehicle associated computing systems (VACS). In certainembodiments particular components of the VACS may perform particularportions of a process depending on the particular implementation of thesystem. By way of example and not limitation, if a process includes astep of sending or receiving information with a paired wireless device,then it is likely that the wireless device is not performing theprocess, since the wireless device would not “send and receive”information with itself. One of ordinary skill in the art willunderstand when it is inappropriate to apply a particular VAC to a givensolution. In all solutions, it is contemplated that at least the VCS 1located within the vehicle 30 is itself capable of performing theexemplary processes, e.g., processing video into hyperlapse video andsharing the processed video to off-vehicle storage or a socialnetworking site (a social network server).

The vehicle 30 also includes a motor, e.g., an internal combustionengine or an electric motor, which is controlled by a motor controller.The motor controller may be in communication with the processor 3, whichcan embed motor data in the video being processed into a time-lapsevideo or a hyperlapse video. The vehicle may further include anenvironment system that controls the interior compartment of thevehicle. An environmental controller is connected to the environmentalsystem to control its operation, e.g., heating, cooling, air flow,defrosting, and the like. The environmental controller may further sensethe exterior environment, e.g., temperature, sunlight, humidity. Suchdata in the environmental controller may be communicated to theprocessor 3 for inclusion in the any video processed by the processor 3.

FIG. 2 illustrates the vehicle 30 in communication with the system 200for providing video and other data to a social networking site 210 byway of electrical or electronic communication, e.g., directly via awireless or wired network 61 or through the portable device 53. Thesystem 200 may include the VCS 1 in communication over the network 61with social networking site 210, e.g., directly, or via the portabledevice 53. Communication can occur over a USB protocol, wirelessnetworks (mobile or cellular phone, Wi-Fi) or other machine to machinecommunication methods. The social networking site 210 may include a datastore 211 configured to store the processed, hyperlapse video from thevehicle 30. The video can be processed into a hyperlapse video by takingraw video data from the at least one camera in the vehicle, smoothingthe video while reducing the time length of the video.

The portable device 53 may be in communication with the socialnetworking site 210 via a wide-area data connection 214 and with thevehicle 30 via a local data connection 212. A social network applicationmay be installed to the portable device 53 and may be configured to sendprocessed video from the vehicle to the social network 210 or other offvehicle data storage. In an example, the portable device 53 is connectedto a suitable wide-area data connection 214 away from the vehicle 30,and provide the uploadable, vehicle-generated videos to the socialnetwork when the portable device 53 is either in the vehicle 30, if anappropriate communication link is established and accepted by the user,or when the device 53 is remote from the vehicle 30 and has anappropriate communication link to the social network 210. While anexemplary system 200 is shown in FIG. 2, the exemplary componentsillustrated in FIG. 2 are not intended to be limiting. Indeed, thesystem 200 may have more or fewer components, and additional oralternative components and/or implementations may be used.

The VCS 1 may be configured to communicate with the social networkingsite 210 over the network 61. In some cases, the VCS 1 may make use ofintegrated network functionality of the VCS 1, such as the internalmodem 63, to facilitate communication with the update server 210. Inother cases, the VCS 1 may utilize a local data connection 212 to theportable device 53 to facilitate communication with the update server210 via a wide-area data connection 214 of the portable device 53. As anexample, for a portable device 53 running the Android operating systemmaintained by the Open Handset Alliance of Silicon Valley, Calif., thedata connection 212 may be established via a wireless Bluetoothconnection or other wireless connection. As another example, for aportable device 53 running the iOS operating system maintained by Apple,Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., the data connection 212 may additionally oralternately be established over a wired USB connection (not shown), aFirewire connection or a Lightning connection. Another connection may beused by a portable device 53 using BB10 by Blackberry Ltd. of WaterlooOntario, Canada.

The portable device 53 may further be configured to establish awide-area data connection 214 (e.g., an Internet connection) between theportable device 53 and the social network site 210, such as a connectionover the network 61. The portable device 53 may be further configured tomaintain information regarding which wide-area data connections 214 maybe preferred by the user for downloading information (or which types ofwide-area data connections 214). For instance, to avoid mobile data planoverage charges, the portable device 53 may be configured to deferrequests to transfer load files when connected to the network 61 via acellular wide-area data connection 214, and may be configured to handlethe download requests (including any deferred requests) when connectedto a Wi-Fi wide-area data connections 214. As another possibility, theportable device 53 may be configured to defer requests until theportable device 53 is connected to the network 61 via a wide-area dataconnection 214 on a list of preferred wide-area data connections 214(e.g., selected by the user from a network control panel user interfaceof the portable device 53).

Due to the portable nature of the portable device 53, it should be notedthat the portable device 53 may maintain a wide-area data connection 214in some cases when it is not in communication with the VCS 1 over thedata connection 212. As one example, the portable device 53 may utilizethe wide-area data connection 214 over a home Wi-Fi network of the useror a public WI-FI when the portable device 53 is not paired with orwithin the vicinity of the vehicle 30. The portable device 53 can beremoved from the vehicle, e.g., carried to and away from the vehicle bythe user. In an example, the portable device 53 may store a processedvideo, e.g., a hyperlapse video, thereon when removed from the vehicle30. The portable device 53 may send the video to the social network site210 or other remote storage (e.g., storage 70 in FIG. 1) when the device53 is remote from the vehicle 30.

The VCS 1 may be configured to communicate with the social network site210 using a wired connection (at least partly non-wireless connection).The social network site 210 may load a processed video from a memorydevice, e.g., a USB enabled device, which was connected to the vehicle30. The memory device can connect to the vehicle at the USB port 23 anddownload the processed video from the vehicle processor 3 or from thestorage 7.

The VCS 1 may be configured to run a social network application 216 thatcan control interaction with the social networking site 210. Forexample, the social network application 216 run by the VCS 1 may receivea command from a user requesting a processed video to be uploaded to thesocial network site 210. As another possibility, the social networkapplication 216 may trigger a periodic check for a new processedvideo(s) in the storage 7. When triggered, the social networkapplication 216 may be configured to send a request to the user, e.g.,through portable device 53 or through a driver-vehicle interface in thevehicle to inquire whether a processed video is available or approvedfor updating to the social network site 210. An affirmative input willtrigger the social network application 216 to upload a processed video,which can be selected by the user through the portable device 53 ordriver-vehicle interface, to the social network site 210. The socialnetwork application 218 in the portable device may be configured tooperate with the vehicle-mounted social network application 216 causethe portable device 53 to send a processed video over any of the networkconnections to the social network site 210 or other remote storage. Forinstance, the social network application 218 may be configured toreceive a listing of the processed video files, e.g., a hyperlapsevideo, identified by the vehicle social media application 216 as beingavailable for download to the social media site 210 using criteriaestablished by the social network and the user. Such criteria can bestored in one or both of the applications 216, 218.

By using the facilities of the portable device 53, the vehicle 30 mayaccordingly be able to have its processed videos (e.g., hyperlapsevideo) downloaded over wide-area data connections 214 that may beunavailable to the vehicle 30 but available to the portable device 53.Thus, the social network application 218 may allow the portable device53 to download processed videos when the portable device 53 is away fromthe vehicle 30 but connected to the network 61.

In some cases, some processed videos in the vehicle may be sent usingthe portable device 53, while other processed videos may be sent by thevehicle 30. The processed videos are videos processed to remove jitterand shake while compressing the time period of the video.

The sending of processed videos from the vehicle 30 can be performed inthe background while the vehicle is in use or anticipated to be in use.The processed videos are digital files, in some cases in the form ofcompressed data files in machine readable form. The processed videos canbe stored in storage 7 and processed using the processor 3. The VCS 1can schedule the transmitting of the video files for when thetransmission will not make an impact on VCS performance and withoutimpacting vehicle operation, including the vehicle infotainment system.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary user interface 300 of the vehicle system200 for receiving consent from the user to transmit processed video fromthe vehicle 30, by the portable device 53 or directly by the vehicle 30,to a remote storage or to the processed videos 210, e.g., through thenetwork 61. The user interface 300 may be presented by the VCS 1 in thevehicle 30 via the display 4, and may include a message prompt 302provided by the social network application 216 to request for the userto agree to use of the social network application 218 to send processedvideos created by the vehicle 30 to the remote storage or the socialnetwork site 210. Where to send the processed video can be a userselected setting in the VCS 1. As illustrated, the message prompt 302 isincluded in the user interface 300 as a message above other content ofthe user interface 300. It should be noted that in other examples, themessage prompt 302 may be provided in other forms, such as via afull-screen user interface.

The user interface 300 may further include controls configured toreceive an indication from the user whether the user agrees to use ofthe social network application 218 on the portable device 53. As anexample, the user interface 300 may include a “yes” control 306 forreceiving an indication from the user that the user agrees to use of thesocial network application 216 or 218, a “no” control 308 for receivingan indication from the user that the user disagrees with use of socialnetwork application 216 or 218, and an “ask-me-later” control 310 forreceiving an indication from the user that the user wishes to beprovided with the message prompt 302 at a later date. If the user agreesto use of either or both of the social network application(s) 216 or218, then the social network application 216 may utilize the socialnetwork application 218 on the portable device to aid in the sending ofprocessed videos to a remote storage or to the social network site 70 or210. Otherwise, the social network application 216 may fall back tofunctionality not using the portable device's social network application218, such as use of the portable device 53 as a data connection (ifauthorized to do so by the user), use of an internal onboard modem 63 ofthe VCS 1, or uploading of processed video may be unavailable. The userinterface 300 may also be used to indicate to the user via the displaythat a processed video has been successfully sent to remote storage or asocial network site.

The interface 300 may also provide an interaction and input/output pointso the vehicle can receive input from a user and output either queriesto the user or video to the user. The video being displayed on theinterface can be the raw video or the processed video. The processedvideo can be a hyperlapse video. Any user input to the vehicle describedherein can be done through appropriate queries displayed on theinterface 300.

FIG. 4 shows a vehicle video method 400 that may be used with thestructures described herein. At 402, the vehicle records video with acamera associated with the vehicle. The vehicle can further record videofrom multiple cameras. The camera may be triggered by user input (e.g.,driver input). The camera may be triggered by the vehicle itselfimplementing rules stored as machine instructions. The rules may be setusing an interface or inputs in the vehicle. The rules may also be partof an application (machine instructions) being applied in the vehicle ora computing device associated with the vehicle. These rules may triggerthe camera when the vehicle is traveling along route that is notfrequently traveled by the vehicle. For example, the camera isinstructed to begin recording when the vehicle is not traveling to orfrom work or along roads that are traveled every day or every week. Therules can also be record on vehicle key-on. The vehicle may also storesettings to always record video when the vehicle is more than a setdistance from the owner's home, e.g., 10 miles, 20 miles, 50 miles andthe like. The vehicle may also receive electronic information that thevehicle is nearing a hotspot, whereat video is of interest to a group ofwhich the owner or driver is a member. It will be recognized that videotaken from cameras on a vehicle may have significant jitter or shake inthe video. This may be caused by vehicle vibrations, road surfaces anddriver operation.

At 404, the vehicle processes the raw video from the camera into asmooth, time-compressed video using an algorithm stored in the vehicleas machine instructions. The machine instructions can be updated overthe vehicle's electronic communication systems. The algorithm can be ahyperlapse video generation algorithm. The hyperlapse video generationalgorithm has all the benefits of time-lapsing without the violenttransitions between video frames. The output of this algorithm is avideo with smoothed transitions, giving the impression that the vieweris gliding through the scene of the recorded video. In an example, thealgorithm reconstructs the video frames using statistical modeling ofthe data in each frame. This can be done relative to adjacent frames.The algorithm plans a path through the reconstructed frames to lose theleast amount of data but smooth the transitions between the frames. Thepath results in a smooth transition when the video is sped up or reducedin time. Next the algorithm renders a new video using the new paththrough the video data. This results in a hyperlapse video that issmooth even when sped up to greater than twice the speed even with highframe rate video. A hyperlapse video can be a first-person video that issped up (e.g., time-lapse) with a smoothly moving camera perspective. Athigh speed-up rates, simple frame sub-sampling coupled with existingvideo stabilization methods do not work, because the erratic camerashake present in vehicle camera video is amplified by the speed-up. Theunstable video can also be caused by the vehicle in motion on the roaddue to varying vehicle speed and steering the vehicle around corners.Such changes in vehicle speed or vehicle direction are amplified whenthe video is sped-up. The algorithm may first reconstruct a threedimensional input camera path as well as dense, per-frame proxygeometries. A novel camera path for the output video is optimized thatpasses near the input camera position while ensuring that the virtualcamera looks in directions that can be rendered well from the videoinput. Finally the algorithm generates the novel smoothed, time-lapsevideo by rendering, stitching, and blending appropriately selectedsource frames for each output frame.

At 406, the processed video is stored in the vehicle storage. In anexample, the processed video is a smoothed time-lapse video. In anexample, the processed video is a hyperlapse video.

At 408, the processed video is shared from the vehicle. In an example,the video is uploaded from the vehicle to a remote storage, e.g., aserver or the user's personal computer. In an example, the video isshared to a social networking site. The social networking site can behosted on a server. The user (e.g., vehicle owner or vehicle driver) maybe is a member of the social networking site. Using communication linksbetween the vehicle and the social networking site, the vehicle canupload a processed video to the social networking site. The socialnetworking site can share the uploaded video according to settings andend user licensing agreement between the site and the user.

Over the connections to the vehicle 30, e.g., directly from the network61, through the portable device 53 or through input from the user, thevehicle can be informed of a popular event (e.g., a hotspot event)happening at a location where the vehicle is currently or at a locationthat is predicted the vehicle will be. When a popular event ishappening, many drivers may use the vehicle's systems to generatehyperlapse video either at the popular event or when arriving at apopular event. The vehicle can record what is happening from the vehicleperspective. The location and time data can be stored to each of thesehyperlapse videos. As a result, these event hotspots can be identifiedand reported to other users, e.g., over the social networking site 70,210 or directly to other user's devices connected via network 61.Examples of hotspot events can be news worthy events, e.g. weatherevents such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes and thelike; emergency responder events, among others. Other hotspot events canbe other happier events, e.g. driving to a ball game, driving to aconcert, driving to a graduation ceremony and the like.

The processed video may include metadata produced by the vehicle 30 thatcan be used to cluster or group similar videos. Examples of metadata canbe location data, time data, etc. A machine learning algorithm at thesocial networking site could be used to cluster all this data intodifferent hotspots. The hyperlapsed videos can thus be grouped together.Once this is done, a small sample of hyperlapse videos can be sent toother people who are looking for nearby events via their vehicles ormobile devices. These identified hotspots can also be overlapped withknown events in an area to help give context to the sample hyperlapsevideos that are displayed. In a further example, the user through thevehicle can receive and view additional hyperlapse videos that relate totheir current location, their usual travel routes or predicted vehicletravel routes. Such routes can be determined based on prior driving datastored in the vehicle.

The presently described system may be flexible in activation as well asthe recording device used. The camera used to perform the recordingcould be a dash camera, the front view camera, a smartphone, or anotherrecording device that can connect to vehicle 30 through its VCS 1.Activating the camera for video recording and the processor forhyperlapse processing can be done by a command from the driver. A voicecommand through the vehicle's system can be used to trigger the camerato start recording. The user could also activate the recordings bypressing button in the vehicle cabin for faster system response. Inaddition to manual (driver) activation, hyperlapse video recording couldbe triggered automatically by the vehicle. Drivers use their cars forroutine drives to/from common destinations, but if they decided to go ona road trip or somewhere out of their normal routine, the vehicle coulddetermine to automatically start recording video for hyperlapseprocessing. This would be achieved by monitoring data, such as time ofday, distance driven, and vehicle, for changes in normal drivingpatterns that are stored in the vehicle.

While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended thatthese embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather,the words used in the specification are words of description rather thanlimitation, and it is understood that various changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may becombined to form further embodiments of the invention.

1. A vehicle comprising: a video camera to record video data; aprocessor to reconstruct a video stream from the video data, plan asmooth path through the video stream, and render the video data alongthe smooth path into a hyperlapse video that has a faster speed and lessjitter than the video stream while the video camera records additionalvideo data; and an input/output device to link the hyperlapse video witha social network.
 2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the input/outputdevice is a mobile phone.
 3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein theinput/output device includes a network communication device in thevehicle.
 4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the hyperlapse video is nota native, sped-up video of the recorded video.
 5. The vehicle of claim1, wherein the video camera is further configured to record from vehicleactivation and to store the recorded video in a memory in the vehicle.6. (canceled)
 7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor isfurther configured to initiate recording of the video data andgenerating of the hyperlapse video based on a location of the vehicle.8. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configuredto send the hyperlapse video to an external processor that is configuredto combine the hyperlapse video with video from other sources.
 9. Thevehicle of claim 1, wherein the input/output device includes anapplication on a mobile phone that connects to a computer in the vehicleand a computer of the social network.
 10. A method for a vehiclecomprising: recording video data using a vehicle camera; processing,using a vehicle processor, the video data into hyperlapse video;outputting the hyperlapse video to a social network associated with atleast one of a driver of the vehicle and the vehicle, and wherein therecording and processing are initiated based on a location of thevehicle.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the outputting includesoutputting the video through a portable device in communication withboth the vehicle and the social network.
 12. The method of claim 10,wherein the outputting includes outputting the video over a networkcommunication device in the vehicle.
 13. The method of claim 10, whereinthe processing includes reconstructing a video stream from the videodata, planning a smooth path through the video stream, and rendering thevideo data along the smooth path into the hyperlapse video that has afaster speed and less jitter than original video.
 14. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the hyperlapse video is not a native, sped-up video ofthe recorded video from the vehicle camera.
 15. The method of claim 10,wherein the recording begins with vehicle activation.
 16. (canceled) 17.The method of claim 10, wherein the recording includes receivinginformation from a source external to the vehicle that the vehicle isnear an event trending in social media.
 18. A method for sharing vehiclevideo data comprising: by a computer, reconstructing video frames viastatistical modeling of video data, identifying a path through thereconstructed video frames that minimizes data loss and smoothstransitions between the reconstructed video frames, rendering hyperlapsevideo using the identified path through the video data, outputting thehyperlapse video from the vehicle to a social network; and wherein therendering includes creating the hyperlapse video to not be a native,sped-up video of the recorded video, and further comprising recordingfrom vehicle activation and storing the recorded video in a memory inthe vehicle before reconstructing, identifying and rendering. 19.(canceled)
 20. The method of claim 18, wherein the rendering isperformed while a video camera records additional video data.
 21. Avehicle comprising: a video camera configured to record video data fromvehicle activation and to store the recorded video in a memory in thevehicle; a processor configured to reconstruct a video stream from thevideo data, plan a smooth path through the video stream, and render thevideo data along the smooth path into a hyperlapse video that has afaster speed and less jitter than the video stream; and an input/outputdevice configured to link the hyperlapse video with a social network.22. The vehicle of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configuredto initiate recording of the video data and generating of the hyperlapsevideo based on a location of the vehicle.
 23. The vehicle of claim 22,wherein the processor is further configured to send the hyperlapse videoto an external processor that is configured to combine the hyperlapsevideo with video from other sources.
 24. The vehicle of claim 23,wherein the input/output device includes an application on a mobilephone that connects to a computer in the vehicle and a computer of thesocial network.
 25. A method for a vehicle comprising: recording videodata using a vehicle camera; processing, using a vehicle processor, thevideo data into hyperlapse video; outputting the hyperlapse video to asocial network associated with at least one of a driver of the vehicleand the vehicle, and wherein the recording includes receivinginformation from a source external to the vehicle that the vehicle isnear an event trending in social media.
 26. The method of claim 25,wherein the recording begins with vehicle activation.